No prepared breakfast at this Hostel either so we again eat our Meusli. The other people using the Hostel are a Japanese lad who is cycling around the area an older husband and wife with a son of about 12 who would rather be anywhere else. The man whenever you speak to him responds with a muffled, grunting type laugh. I'm not sure I ever heard him speak properly. The Japanese lad is very interested in talking to us even though his English is not great. Still it was an awful lot better than our Japanese.

We said our goodbye's and walked up to the café and got a sandwich and some drinks for today's walk. It was 10am by the time we finally got underway. Walked up through the pinewoods of Byrness for miles and miles. The weather was good when we started but after about 3 miles it started spitting with rain. The rain got heavier and heavier and the wind got up. We stopped and put on our waterproofs knowing the weather would not improve. We walked on a couple of miles then stopped at a crossroads for a drink and a snack.

"Wow! Mountain Rescue Helicopter" I exclaimed as the chopper came into view. "Denice must have rang them because you've got the mobile switched off", quipped Dil. The helicopter circled twice over our heads then unbelievably it landed on the crossroads 30 feet in front of us. "Get a picture" Dil shouted as it came into land. I was already reaching for my camera. "Did you call a Taxi?" Dil asked me over the drone of the motor. "Ask them if they are going to Edale", I replied, thinking of my blisters.

It turned out - so the young copper told us - that some bloke was believed lost. Last seen (or believed to be) walking the Pennine Way carrying a Pink Rucksack, "For God sake, some people just have no fashion conscience" I said, with a sideways glance at Dil's ex-army waterproof over-trousers. This guy had a "serious domestic" it turns out and wanted time and space and decided to walk "The Way". "Must have heard of our own club" Dil muttered quietly. "He might be suicidal, so if you see him or any tents let us know" said the copper, "We don't think he wants to be contacted" he added. Dil's eyes shifted to the mobile phone hanging from the belt of my backpack for some inexplicable reason. The copper returned to the Helicopter and it took off blowing our hats 50 metres down the path as a parting gesture.

The tarmac path finally left the woods at a remote farmhouse, it was here that we met the only walkers that we saw this day, a Mother and Daughter who were walking to Byrness that day and planning to complete the final 28 miles to Kirk Yetholm the following day. We strongly advised against it as we were wimps over that section.

I found the farmhouse on the map and realised we should have turned off the track a mile or so back and were no longer on the route. The road we were on would lead us back to the path though so we walked on passed a Pit house and then on to a Cattle-grid where the Pennine way crossed the road. We stopped here for another drink and then walked onto a slab path, then over a hill and circumnavigated a farmhouse where we stopped for a sandwich, sheltering under a large horse-chestnut tree out of the rain. We lost our way slightly across the next couple of fields but finally spotted a marker at the top of a hill and were then back on course.

With just over 2 miles to go our boots were leaking and the rain was getting harder, but the walking was great, the best we had enjoyed so far though I'm not really sure why. It could have been the nice short lush spongy grass through which we were walking. We came over a crest and could see the town Of Bellingham (pronounced Bellinjam) below us. We walked through a farmyard and back onto tarmac and then onto the road into Bellingham.

We arrived at the Hostel at 4.20pm. It was all locked up except for the drying room. We dumped our bags in the drying-room which already had four other bags in there. We would have been soaked through but our Waterproofs had done their job very well.

We walked into the town and visited the chemist for treatment for my blisters and Dil's pulled muscle. Dil did ask the lady behind the counter if she would be prepared to apply the Deep Heat to his upper thigh. For those of a weak disposition I won't go too deeply into what her reply was, lets just say she declined. We crossed the road to the aptly named Cheviot Hotel for a pint of Theakstons, we left a puddle behind us when we left. Then back to the Hostel for its opening at 5pm.

We frantically emptied our backpacks and removed everything damp and hung it in the drying room across the way. We sat on the bed and examined our feet. I now have 2 black toenails, Dil is soaking his feet in a large galvanised bucket of salt water. There is only one other person in the Hostel at present. The Warden has now buggered off saying that she would be back at 10pm for the late arrivals and will lock up at 11pm.

John, the other occupant of the hostel drove us into town for dinner at one of the Pubs. He told us that he had met this guy at his previous hostel who had walked the Pennine Way 4 times and had a horrible habit of making cat noises in his sleep. Did he have no teeth we asked in unison. Yes it was our man from Kirk Yetholm. John left to visit some of his friends near Otterburn.

Then we visited the last of the three pubs in the town and made a curious discovery. All the pubs were full of the same people. The only conclusion that we could draw was that the town was populated, by some strange quirk of nature, by triplets, none of them drinking in the same Pub as their siblings. What made the whole thing even stranger was that the interiors of the Pubs even looked identical all of them with the real ale being off. Maybe they are Holographic images of one of the Pubs! That would explain why I was able to walk through the bar.

As a concerned Parish Councillor I was aghast at the wanton way that the Sheep would excrete directly onto the path. With the acres and acres of space available to them why oh why do they have to use the path? Perhaps an EU subsidy in training Sheep basic etiquette is called for.